Tulane University To Break Ground on New Science and Engineering Building

Molly Oehmichen

September 8, 2011

Tulane University will have groundbreaking ceremony for Flower Hall, a new hub for science & engineering, at the uptown campus in New Orleans on Friday, September 9th at 4:30 p.m.

Flower Hall will replace Taylor Laboratory; the outdated facility, built in 1949, has become unsuitable for contemporary research.

When completed, Flower Hall will serve as a 24,000-square-foot science and engineering hub that will include labs with open spaces designed to facilitate the exchange of ideas and boost collaboration among engineers and scientists from diverse fields and their colleagues and students. The building will also feature study rooms, offices and sunlit gathering areas on each floor. The major fields of inquiry will be in energy, health and the environment.

Pre-construction renderings of Flower Hall by Woodward Design+Build

“It could not only help the school out, but also be a benefit to the economy of the city,” says Flower, whose firm Woodward Design+Build has committed to designing, building and funding much of the project. Other major gifts from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the estate of the late Dr. Irwin Frankel (a 1942 engineering alumnus) and other donors helped fast-track the project.

When it debuts next year, the new $7.4 million Donna and Paul Flower Hall for Research and Innovation will be a catalyst for Tulane’s emergence as a science and engineering powerhouse, attracting scholars, expanding research and satisfying the region’s demand for innovative problem-solvers, says Nick Altiero, dean of the School of Science and Engineering.